Yesterday while studying for the GRE, Asha kept trying to nap on top of the very book I was studying from. She really enjoyed plopping herself down across the two pages, obscuring my view completely.

She also really really likes to wrap herself around one of my balls of yarn while I'm knitting, making it impossible to knit further.

Speaking of knitting, I've got three scarves on the needles right now (one is from a month or two ago). I'm knitting a ribbed scarf with one of the skeins of koolaid dyed yarn. I really really like how the colors have patterned out. I intend to take a picture of it soon!

I had really wanted to start this kitty hat here with this yarn, but I need to buy a shorter set of circular needles. If I finish this GRE book today, I may reward myself with some new needles.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Blah, now that i've spent my loads of money on gre tests, I really need to go turn in my pay forms for work. I just need to decide if I want to bill all of my hours on this pay period or spread it out a bit.

My boss in the psych dept gave me a $60 gift card to LaBelle Day Spa for working so hard on the conference. I've never been to a spa, so this should be rather interesting. seaweed wrap anyone?

last night there was a big hulabaloo outside paulie's apt. I was watching Daria while people outside on the street were screaming. Paulie filled me in. Apparently, some guy had hit a police car and just jetted out of his car. Suddenly we had about 12 cop cars circling our block area trying to find this escapee. They even called in a helicopter which loudly circled overhead for a very long time. oh the excitement.

oh and there was an amusing moment where ming, evan, and i were waiting for the caltrain.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Saturday when I woke up and wandered out of the bedroom I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing clearly. I called to ervy to come see what asha had done.

I had left my knitting on the couch, with half of the scarf already knitted on the needles. Asha must have had fun with one of the balls of yarn that was connected to my scarf. There was yarn wrapped around the buffet table, the hall way, through the kitchen, around the fridge and back! I was quite amused, and didn't even mind that I had to cut through it (it became knotted when i unwound it) and re tie the yarn to the incomplete scarf.

in other news, asha gave us a scare yesterday. Sunday morning I noticed Asha was rubbing her paw along the left side of her jaw repeatedly. I figured she might have gotten a hair or something caught in her mouth. Evan took a look but didn't see anything. In the afternoon I noticed again that she continued to do this. So I held asha down while evan peered into her mouth with a flashlight. He reported that her gums on the left were swollen and slightly bleeding. When we let her go, she curled up in evan's lap, but something fell out of her mouth. I recoiled utterly grossed out. One of her teeth had fallen out into evan's lap. EEEEEEeeeewww! I picked it up and put it on a napkin, and we called adobe animal hospital to make an appointment for that afternoon. The nurse on staff calmed us down, and told us that it was normal for kittens asha's age to loose teeth as their adult ones came in, and that we should expect her to have sore gums with a little light bleeding. Ugh.

At least I know she's alright, she stopped doing her jaw rubbing thing, so I guess that molar was really bothering her. I still think it's really gross for some reason. The tooth looks really weird too, because it's one of the back ones, it's not as pointy as I would have expected.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

I had hoped to have some pics of skye for my pic of the day. unfortunately, my work has been so crazy with the conference coming up tomorrow and Friday (i have to wake up at 5:45am) that I haven't had much time to do much other than work.

ervy went over to feed and take care of skye, while I stayed home and worked some more. I got up at 7am today just to make sure some signs got printed and I left my keys at Jungle.

On another note, I found out that one of the women I've been working with for the conference knits and makes jewelry. We got very excited about knitting and jewelry making. She is apparently part of this Stanford knitting group called the Stanford Knit witsI was also able to mention my current problem with purling and knitting in the same line (i end up gaining stitches), and she said I could bring my knitting by sometime and she'd show me how to do it right. (she said i was wrapping an extra loop in when i switched between the stitches).

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

from Craigslist . Someone bought a rat for a photoshoot, doesn't sound like they have a cage or supplies, and now is trying to get rid of it. Honestly, it seems so mean to buy an animal knowing you only want her for one short bit. Very inconsiderate. oh. and the person's pictures of the rat (at least the posted ones) suck.

It's official. Asha can open our bedroom door. Like a little alarm clock, I heard our bedroom door open at 7am today. No meowing or anything. She knew she didn't have to whine to get in. Little rascal. She was so confident in her abilities that she strolled out of the room after a couple minutes. I of course shut the door behind her. We stuck a backpack in front of the door to block her entry back in. This time it took Asha 5 tries before she put enough weight against the door to move the door and the backpack.

Smart kitty.

Persistent kitty.

Apparently after I left, ervy moved the nightstand in front of the door, and Asha spent 20 minutes (without a break)just trying to get into the room. He finally let her in. She's probably lounging under the covers now while we're both at work.

Monday, September 20, 2004

sorry the color is out of whack in this photo. I had the camera on the wrong lighting setting, and I didn't bother to fully color adjust.

my little kitty has developed an annoying habit of sitting outside the bedroom door meowing until we let her in. We don't let her in the bedroom when we're trying to sleep because she is simply too playful at night to let us rest. At 7AM today, Asha decided she wanted to be in the room with us and started meowing up a storm. Evan felt bad for her and let her in, but she started pouncing on us and running around the room, so we kicked her out of the room again.

Of course, Asha started meowing again, and pushing her paw underneath the bedroom door trying to get in. One of these arm attempts worked, and the door pushed open, allowing asha free reign of the room.

I did take off her collar to keep it from jingling around the room as I slept (or tried to). Around 8:45 am she quieted down, and crawled underneath the covers. (I found out when I stretched my legs down and accidently pushed her out of the bed and onto the floor *thump!*.

Friday, September 17, 2004

Asha was acting all freaky yesterday, we think this was due to some catnip toys which we have now taken away from her. It makes her all jumpy and crazy.

Asha went to the vet today to meet Dr. Sophia. My kitty hated the car ride and meowed the whole trip (even through the vet visit). She certainly didn't like getting her temperature taken.

I did get her microchipped while I was there which was good. Even though the PAHS rep I got her from told me not to give her a rabies shot (can cause cancer in cats), my doctor told me that it's mandatory for cats in San Mateo County to have a rabies vaccine. So I'll call back in a few months to get her vaccinated (they may be adopting a new sort of vaccination that may not cause cancer).

in other asha news, my mom tried to make me feel bad about getting a cat... saying they take up too much time. She was annoyed that I even had to take her to the vet. boo mom.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Asha met Skeeter the night before last. I made sure ervy petted asha a lot while i was holding skeeter so she didn't get jealous. She was very interested in skeeter (perhaps a little too interested?) and she'd sniff him and lick him, but when he came toward her to sniff her, she would back away or jump off the couch!

I think she knows her name now though. I can call "asha" and if she isn't sleeping too soundly or distracted by something in the window or frightened, she'll come running up to me. Today, she heard me get out of bed (creaky floor boards must have given me away), and before I'd even opened the door, I heard her run up to the bedroom door and start meowing for love.

I scheduled her a vet appt at the Woodside Vet clinic that Skye goes to. Apparently, I "missed my window of opportunity" as the receptionist said so snidely (she really did, it was quite obnoxious). Apparently to get the free vet visit you have to take your adopted pet into the vet within 7 days. Fuck, if I'd known that I wouldn't have waited. We haven't even had her 2 weeks yet! grr.. so now it's $52.50. that's not too much... but it's not free. sheesh.
but i want to establish a relationship with a vet anyway.

haha btw, i think asha now has my last name. the receptionist asked me what my last name was and listed it under asha... should I bother changing it?

So I haven't done anything too crafty in a while. Mostly because I don't know where my craft supplies are. I did go to the Salvation Army last weekend with ervy. I picked up a couple of wool and wool/alpaca/synth sweaters. So far, I've mainly dismantled the blend sweater. I was excited to buy these because they are light colored, and I've been wanting to dye some yarn with kool-aid for awhile. (Kool-Aid is often used as a dye for any natural fibers. since I dyed the blended fiber yarn, the color is not as intense, and is almost more heathery).

First I had to wash the recycled yarn to clean it. I used Dove shampoo for this. Most shampoos are actually quite gentle on natural fiber yarn.

then I made some kool-aid, a couple TB of H20 per packet of Kool-Aid. Each mixed separately in their own cup. Then I used a baster to squirt the colorful liquid onto my yarn which was already sitting in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Let rest for a few minutes. Repeat until the liquid in the bowl is clear. Then you know that all the dye has soaked into the yarn!

I had to let the yarn cool (it was really hot!). Then I washed the yarn again with shampoo (in a water temperature close to the temperature of the yarn... you aren't supposed to shock it with cold water or it might felt). Then I conditioned and washed it with Dove conditioner (conditioner makes most natural fibers super soft, even the scratchiest wool can benefit from this!).

These are the two finished skeins right now. I'm interested to see the pattern these will have when I knit up a swatch. This was also a good way for me to test which flavors of Kool-Aid I liked best. Safeway is having a sale on kool-aid right now 10/$1.00 (down from 8/$2.00) so I can stock up on the colors I like best.

Argh! if I had just gotten the nose! So one of the problems with our camera... well the main problem, is that the screen doesn't turn on. So I have to try to remember how much the lens is off from the viewfinder. So I missed Asha's nose.

Blah, I have so much work to do on campus today. but I just want to put it off.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

I love that Asha will come running up to me as soon as I wake up and come out of the bedroom (even if it's in the middle of the night!). It makes me feel so loved. And she'll cry a little bit if I don't pet her enough during these times. Yay I feel so needed!

Yesterday Fuson came over and we watched the Charmed premiere episode on TiVo. Asha was funny in that she kept eyeing fufu (I guess to see if he was an okay human...meaning safe to be around). But she played with him and let him pet her, so all seemed well in the Asha world.

She's made a cute habit of staking out the leftmost open window in the living room. She's very interested in the outside. Yesterday I showed her a squirrel outside, and she was super excited watching it jump around. Ervy says this is bad if we want to introduce her to skeeter (I plan to do this soon actually).

Monday, September 13, 2004

Given that my camera is on the fritz, ya'll will have to work with me as i deal with the less than stellar photos that come out of it. Still, I can't help at least trying to take pics of asha.

yesterday she actually spent most of the day awake -- waiting by our bedroom door for air pressure to blow the door open. We'd notice it was open, retrieve the asha from under the covers, and then close the door again. Doing this all day actually made asha quite sleepy at night, and she napped with us on the couch while we watched Basic on TiVo.

Friday, September 10, 2004

She's been trying to get into the living room and our bedroom when we aren't looking or we forget to close the door very well. Or if she isn't trying, she's sitting there moping looking at the bedroom door.

Ervy felt bad and let her into the bedroom for a little while. She was so super excited. She just started jumping around the room! and then she came and pounce fiercely on my comforter-covered toes! All her excitement just made it all the sadder when she had to be put out of the room again.

Today, she discovered my slippers. I had just slipped them off my feet, so they were still warm. Trying to figure out where this warm cavern went (could it be another fantastic hiding spot for Asha?), she tried to squeeze into my slippers. It was quite amusing. She only got her head and shoulders in, but she was searching for a way to get more of her into my fuzzy footwear.

And of course, while I wasn't looking today, she jumped up and had some of my soy milk from my cereal bowl. silly asha!

This pic amuses me. Most of the time, she can't sit still for photos. Just a simple head turn and the photo is blurry. I think she taunts the camera. Lucky for her, the camera is out of batteries and possibly broken now.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

today i was eating a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, and Asha started meowing at me. She then hopped up onto my lap and proceeded to lick lactaid from my bowl of frosted miniwheats. It was adorable, but i quickly plopped her back on the floor and gave her her own little bowl of whole milk (which I happened to have around for ice cream making purposes - which is a whole other sticky story to tell).

Even after the milk tho, asha kept meowing at me. Now having had Asha for all of 6 days now, I can tell you, she is a fairly non-talkative cat. Asha's constant meowing now was quite dismaying since I had absolutely no idea what she wanted. As I was cleaning her litterbox though, she kept jumping on me, on my back, on my legs. So after I was done I sat down and she immediately crawled into my lap, started purring and went to sleep. Cute as this was, I had to leave for work in 20 min, so I had to get some things cleaned up before I left. Of course, as soon as I stood up, the meowing restarted.

Finally, I opened up our bedroom door to get some socks, and Asha dashed in and scooted under the covers. Cute as this is, I will let her stay there today so she won't cry while I'm gone, but e isn't sure if his allergies to Asha are getting worse, so in the future, she won't be allowed in the bedroom.

In other Asha news, Asha now has her collar on. She was quite annoyed with it in the beginning, but she seems to have accepted it. Ervy feels bad for her though, because her tags reflect light onto the floor and sometimes she goes crazy chasing after these reflections.

Friday, September 03, 2004

I finally have a kitty. Her name is Asha. She's currently in the bathroom hiding out in a tent I made. I'm letting her rest a bit now, but I'll take mucho photos later!

for now, here's a photo of her from the PAHS website:

She is so tiny! They estimate that she is between 4-5 months. And she has cute little spots along her body. Although currently she has been seeking the darkest places to hide and sleep, when I picked her up earlier, she immediately started purring. She doesn't have a problem being held on her back, and she's great about getting her nails trimmed (it only takes one person! I saw!).

The foster mommy said she thinks Asha is part Siamese because of the way she meows. I have never heard anything about that, but I do look forward to hearing her meow.

I've bought her a scratching post, kind of like this one except the triangle isn't a right triangle, and the green is a sage green.

I also got her a panic mouse, because I saw how much Evan's boss's cats enjoyed it.